The Story Behind The Song “Secret Love” by Freddy Fender

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It’s no secret (pun intended!) that the song “Secret Love” by Freddy Fender is about a love so full that it got “impatient to be free.”

This is just a speck in the long list of Freddy Fender songs that talk about love. It is no wonder why this is a hit–romance that invokes thrilling feelings. And a lot of people can relate to the feeling of being so in love, of being so emotionally fulfilled in the presence of a person that they just can’t keep it inside themselves anymore.

How romantic is that?!

But the story of this chart-topping Freddy Fender song is an interesting one: it’s not his original song.

This song went through different artists; in fact, this was originally made by Sammy Fain (who wrote the music) and Paul Francis Webster (who wrote the lyrics) for the 1953 musical film “Calamity Jane.”

The first version was by Doris Jane, who recalled that when she first heard the song, she “just about fell apart.” She initially requested to have her practice run-through with the orchestra be recorded, which the recording studio reluctantly allowed. Good thing they did, because it literally took Doris one take, and the recording studio was immediately satisfied and considered her practice run-through recording as the final version of the song.

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Then there were the 1953-1954 cover versions, which there is a lot of them. Two of which are the cover version by Gogi Grant and by Tommy Edwards.

Then we have Kathy Kirby’s version of the song. It was considered a remake: with up-tempo and started with the middle eight. They released the remake as a single in October 1963, which resulted in Kirby’s UK career record peaking at #4 in December of that year. The remake was also a hit in Australia, which peaked in the charts at #2.

And then, Freddy Fender. His version of “Secret Love was conceptualized for his 1975 album release “Are You Ready For Freddy?” and was recorded in the summer of 1975. It was initially released as a single in that same year and resulted in Fender topping the charts–making his third #1 hit song on the Billboard C&W. He also crossed the US Top 40 of Billboard Hot 100 charts, hitting them at #20. 

For his 2002 album “La Musica de Baldemar Huerta,” he decided to remake this song.

Now, that’s a journey! It’s so amazing to see the journey that “Secret Love” went through until it reached Freddy Fender. This just goes to show that it’s a very remarkable piece of music.

You can listen to Freddy Fender’s version of the song below. Tell us what you think!

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